Cool Real World Locations 3

The Plain of Jars.  Kinda weird, right?  In the Northeast section of Laos there are hewn stone jars ranging from 1 meter to 3 meters tall, in over 90 sites with up to 400 jars at a site.  Archaeologists have theorized that they were used for prehistoric burial practices.  It's also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

In 6P scale 1m is three Plates tall -- 3.3 if we're being precise -- so that means 3m is ten Plates tall and classifies as Cover.

So this is is an attempt to model one of the tallest Jars.  It has 12 pieces -- which would be two Hits -- and is a little over 11 feet tall by 10 feet in diameter in 6P scale.  It consists of (3x) 4x4 Round Plate w/2x2 Hole, (8x) 2x2 Round Corner Brick, and (1x) 4x4 Inverted Dish.

You can build this in Black, Bright Light Orange, Dark Blue, Dark Pink, Light Bluish Grey, Lime, or Red.  A bunch of these, along with a few different tree designs should make for a visually distinct battlefield.

The Frame in the first picture is based on artwork by Denis Artist.  Flickr page.

Cool Real World Locations 2

I know it's been a million years since I've done one of these but I recently came across something I thought was worth looking at.  It's an opportunity to talk more about terrain, which is one of my goals this year.   Also, it's a chance to get inspired by the real world and build something cool for our games.

The Coldstones Cut in North Yorkshire, England is a massive art installation that -- to me -- hearkens back to some of the discussions in the MFZ community about having a battlefield composed of underground passages.  Of course this is an aboveground location but it gives you the impression of cramped hallways and tight spaces.  You could also copy it outright.  Make the walls tall enough and it would add Elevation to the mix along with a neat looking visual.  There's a quarry right next to it that would also make for a cool battlefield as well.

Google Earth map.

Cool Real-World Locations

I took a trip by train a few weeks ago and traveled through an interesting looking train station.  I thought it would make a great place to create out of Lego for a MFZ:RA tabletop.

Westerly, Rhode Island Amtrack Station.  Use Friendship St., Canal St., and Railroad Ave. as three of your borders and you've got a nice playing field to fill with MFZ goodness.  There's lots of open area to travel through, buildings for hard cover and trees for soft cover.

Terrain & Real Life Locations

We constantly see broken sections of wall being used as cover and terrain in MFZ games.  These can be a little bland and divorced from any story the gaming group might want to tell.  Drawing inspiration from real world sources might help to make your table look better and give some sort of source for the game story.  A friend of mine sent me this link to pictures of an Armenian ghost town.   I figured I'd share it with you and see if might help inspire some people.  While there are some broken down buildings, there is a context to these ruins and not just random wall sections.

Moving on to something a little more urban, here's an article about abandoned malls.  Some of the external locations could make good game backdrops.  Also, depending on what scale you play at, you might be able to squeeze your mechs into some of the inside locations as well.

I hope the pictures in these articles give you some ideas for new terrain for your gaming table.